Ainars BAGATSKIS: “Bliznyuk is always ready to play immediately”

Head coach of the Ukrainian national team, Ainars Bagatskis, talked about the physical form of some team players and also shared his views on the test match against the second Lithuanian team.

“When it comes to twins, I always worry the least. Of course, if you haven’t played for almost half a year, you can’t help but lose the rhythm of the game. But Bogdan always arrives in such physical condition that he’s ready to play right away.

Gerun has been treated and recovered since April. Desire, experience – everything is fine, but the game skills, the rhythm of the game are lost. It’s a matter of time because he came not physically ready. Vojnalowic is doing very well, given the role we see for him on the team. Andrei has been training in Riga all this time, so everything is fine with him too.

Lukashov felt his back. It wasn’t pain, it was felt. Denis, like all players, is an important part of the team. We decided to keep it. And Tkachenko also felt his back after the first two days of training. But he will train today.

A control game with the Lithuanians? Lots of technical marriages. My wish on the eve of the match was something – I said we should play in such a way that we wouldn’t be ashamed of what we did on the field, because the Lithuanians don’t care what squad they are on. It doesn’t matter where they go, it doesn’t matter what Lithuanians are preparing for. They only understand the language of anger. It can be said that the opponent has a non-standard team, they are not high. As expected, we started badly, we let light eyes. And then they found their rhythm, and it was already a matter of class. The point of this game is, as I said before the July games, it was good that we had time to train and play two games in Portugal. At that time, we played far from top quality basketball. However, because of these games, they were more caught up in the rhythm of the game. And that’s the most important thing right now,” Bagatskis said.